We live in a rapidly changing world, and for most of us, change is quickly happening at work. Disruptive technology, innovation, and increased transparency are just some of the driving factors of change.

We may have little control over the future of our job or industry, but we still have influence when it comes to getting the right things done at the right times. Here are the top three productivity killers.

1. Poor Prioritizing And Planning

Placing unrealistic expectations on oneself is the fastest way to becoming burned out at work. We do this all the time. We have a ‘to-do list’ where we put anywhere from ten to fifteen items on it. And we tell ourselves a lie.
“I can get it all done.” And we don’t. Then we leave at the end of the day with the unfinished items on our minds and no sense of accomplishment or progress.

A state of constant busyness is usually the result of lazy thinking — no prioritization or planning.

2. Procrastination

When procrastination is an everyday behavior, it usually are coming from a place of fear. You may catch yourself overanalyzing something or being scared of making a decision.

“I believe that the chronic negative emotions that so many people experience in modern daily life stem from two causes: one, from having a habitual perfectionistic expectation of themselves in daily situations; and, two, from having a deeply ingrained habit of procrastination in dealing with these situations.” Dan Sullivan

The question to keep on a post-it note, where you can see it throughout the day is what I call ‘The Procrastination Question’.

Are you inventing things to do to avoid the important?

3. Personal Disorganization

Do you consistently ask yourself questions about the placement of things?

– Where did I put that report?
– What folder did I put that email in?
– Is it on my desktop?

How much time do you spend on average looking for things?

Is your workspace organized in a way that supports your productivity or distracts you from it?

Marie Kondo is making organization doable and popular. She is already onto season two in her popular series on Netflix. If organizing is not your skill, ask for help. I hired a professional organizer to come and help me organize my one-room office, and it has had a significant impact on my business. For me it solved one of the big three productivity killers.

Solving these productivity problems is not difficult but it does take work. First you have to plan and prioritize and stop procrastinating. And then organize yourself and your space so that this better systemized environment feeds back into your doing more planning and prioritizing. It is a virtuous circle with each positive outcome feeding into and increasing the beneficial effect of the next.

by Eric Papp

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